Re: EPT London - Victoria Coren
[ QUOTE ]
I had thought Vicky was sponsored by Paradise for quite a while, but I see her sporting Stars gear on The Hendon Mob's forum.
[/ QUOTE ]
SportingBet PLC discontinued all player sponsorships when it took over ParadisePoker.com.
Signing Victoria Coren to a long term endorsement/sponsorship deal will cost PokerStars or one of its rivals an arm and a leg. I would not be surprised to see the bidding go above $1 million a year.
I peg the absolute minimum bid for Coren's services as spokeswoman to be $500,000 a year for at least 2 years, if not 3 years.
There is no doubt that every British talent agent who knows anything about TV poker and his brother and sister will be contacting Coren for possible representation.
--
Coren's win at the EPT in London is bad for everyone else IN THE SHORT TERM who are shopping for sponsorship deals, as the entire online poker world will now be almost 100% focused on bidding for the Coren sponsorship/endorsement deal.
However, once Coren gets her sponsorship deal done, the dollar amount of the deal will set a new benchmark for everyone else. That might be good for certain people in the long run.
--
What is for certain: a "young gun" American who wins a single WPT event, a single WSOP bracelet, or a single EPT event is not worth much if anything at this point, as there is a glut of "young gun" Americans out there who have won a single televised event and TV poker ratings in the U.S. have flattened out in 2006, the 4th year of the TV poker phenomenon.
The "young gun" will have to win TWO in a single year the way "The Grinder" did in order to be worth something to sponsors. Jeff Madsen did a quick deal with FullTiltPoker.NET after he won his 2 bracelets off camera.
|